- **Authentication**: this option designates a flow to be used for authentication. The authentication flow should always contain a [**User Login**](../../stages/user_login/index.md) stage, which attaches the staged user to the current session.

- **Authorization**: designates a flow to be used for authorization of an application. Can be used to add additional verification steps before the user is allowed to access an application. This flow is defined per provider, when the provider is created, to state whether implicit or explicit authorization is required.

- **Enrollment**: designates a flow for enrollment. This flow can contain any amount of verification stages, such as [**Email**](../../stages/email/index.mdx) or **Captcha**. At the end, to create the user, you can use the [**User Write**](../../stages/user_write.md) stage, which either updates the currently staged user, or if none exists, creates a new one.

- **Invalidation**: designates a default flow to be used to invalidate a session. Use `default-invalidation-flow` for invalidation from authentik itself, or use `default-provider-invalidation-flow` to invalidate when the session of an application ends. When you use the `default-invalidation-flow` as a global invalidation flow, it should contain a [**User Logout**](../../stages/user_logout.md) stage. When you use the `default-provider-invalidation-flow` (supported with OIDC, SAML, Proxy, and RAC providers), you can configure this default flow to present users log-off options such as "log out of the app but remain logged in to authentik" or "return to the **My Applications** page", or "log out completely". (Alternatively, you can create a custom invalidation flow, with a branded background image.)

- **Recovery**: designates a flow for recovery. This flow normally contains an [**Identification**](../../stages/identification/index.mdx) stage to find the user. It can also contain any amount of verification stages, such as [**Email**](../../stages/email/index.mdx) or [**CAPTCHA**](../../stages/captcha/index.md). Afterwards, use the [**Prompt**](../../stages/prompt/index.md) stage to ask the user for a new password and the [**User Write**](../../stages/user_write.md) stage to update the password.

- **Stage configuration**: designates a flow for general setup. This designation doesn't have any constraints in what you can do. For example, by default this designation is used to configure authenticators, like change a password and set up TOTP.

- **Unenrollment**: designates a flow for unenrollment. This flow can contain any amount of verification stages, such as [**email**](../../stages/email/index.mdx) or [**Captcha**](../../stages/captcha/index.md). As a final stage, to delete the account, use the [**user_delete**](../../stages/user_delete.md) stage.
